App Building & Devintermediate
Refactoring
Definition
Restructuring existing code to be cleaner, more efficient, or more maintainable, without changing its external behaviour. The process of paying down technical debt.
Why it matters
Regular refactoring keeps a codebase healthy and developers productive. Ignoring it leads to code that's brittle, slow, and expensive to change. Founders should budget time for refactoring alongside new features.
Example
A founder's developer spends one sprint refactoring the payment module. No new features ship, but future payment-related changes will take hours instead of days.
Related terms
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